New Ulm weekly review., 1887-08-17
.he car wasts directly over the place where
The hridgestood. To the right lay coach


the car wastd directly over the place where
the bridge stood. To the right lay coach
all
BROKEN INTO tKINDLNG WOOD,
and directly on the road was piled up what
was left OF six or seven coaches, turned
tottom sidesup, and broken beyond recog-
milton. Across the track in front of the pile
of debris was coach lying crosswise, way
up atleast ten feetin the air. Beyond were
the two tenders and one engine One ten
der was to the left of the track and the
other to the right They were turned
bottom side:up and rent assunder The engine
was scarcely recognizable On the side
of the cab was the il-starred number g. p
gOnly a big pane of glass marked s13." On
the hedge were hats. shoes, and all manner
Of wearing apparel, broken lanterns and
seats from the cars. 1t was an awful sight
Hats OF men and women, broken and scared
with blood, coats reeking with gore, and
ladies' underwear s,neared with life-huld
1t was plain to be seen from the looks of the
baggage that the travellers were well-to-do
people. There was
An INCIDENT
in the affair which was not only remarka Bile
in its way, but shows how terribly these six
coaches Were jammed and mashed together.
When the accident occurred Andy Mooney
OF Peoria and Conductor Stillwell, who was
in charge OF the train were three cars from
each other Mooney was in the second car
and Stillweu in the fifth The next instant
they found themselves literally in each
others arms. the car in (which the conductor
was riding having been carried over the two
in front and dropped on top of
the one which Mooney was in. The strange
part of it was neither man was hurt The
most horrible death of all was that of En-
glneer McCintock, engineer of the second en-
gfne OF the double header The first engine
which Engineer Sutherland was driving
passed over the burning bridge in safety.
but it was under its weight that the half
consumed bridge gave way, and the tender
dropped back into the dry slough
sutherland's engine kept the rails and
ran on in safety, such was the
awful speed of the unfortunate train.
McClintock's engine plunged down into the
black hole, and as the tender mounted on
top of the cab it took McClintock in the back
of the neck and cut his head clean off his
shoulders. The trunk was found under the
engine, the head couldn't be discovered, and
the presumption is that it was ground to
atoms in the horrible millstones of the en-
gine and the tender. There have been many
guesses as to the origin of the fire which
weakened the bridge and caused the acci-
dent. but so far they are nothing but
guessek The
NEWS OF THE DISASTER
was brought to Chatsworth by one of the
passengers about midnight, and the inhabi-
tants aroused, buggies, lumber wagons, and
every kind of vehicles Were used to reach
the fatal spot AS fast as the corpses were
taken from the wreck they were laid out on
the side of the track. Before daylight
the work of recovering the dead and remov-
ing them to Chatsworth was begun
AS soon as the corpses were received
they we've placed in large, empty building,
lately occupied as store, also in the public
school house and in the depot waiting room
The residents of the town threw open their
houses for the reception of the dead and
wounded, but the former were all taken to
the improvised morgues. Friends and
relatives of the dead came to Chats
in the different places where the bodies Law
was most heartrending and distressing As
the day passed bodies were continually
brought in from the scene OF the wreck. The
majority of them were mangled in the most
frightful manner, many Of them having their
faces entirely torn away, leaving their
bones exposed, while their Jaws,
fingers and legs mad been torn off
Indirectly the catastrophe was ascribed to
the origin of so many other recent great
calamities-the unprecedented drouth The
tall grass under little culvert on the Toledo.
Peoria g. Western, few miles east of
Chatsworth had been rendered by the
sun as dry as tinder, and last night loco
motive spark set it ablaze. the timbers
of the culver5 caught on fire and
were smouldering unseen when 1T
train OF sixteen coaches of excursionists
from Peoria and Bloomington and neighbor-
ing cities. There was a terrific crash
and an accident almost unpreceden5 in
horrors had passed into history. That was
the brief story. quickly CLEANED on the
streets of Chatsworth this evening.